GE, Sandia National Lab Discover Pathway to Quieter, More Productive Wind Turbines

Use of powerful Red Mesa supercomputer yields valuable insights that will enable blades with less aerodynamic noise.

New wind blade design could deliver two-percent more power from same size turbine rotor.

With over 240GW of wind power generation forecasted through 2017, newly designed blades could provide enough additional electricity to power three major American cities.

GE Global Research, the technology development arm of the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced research that could significantly impact the design of future wind turbine blades. Utilizing the power of high-performance computing (HPC) to perform complex calculations, GE engineers have overcome previous design constraints, allowing them to begin exploring ways to design reengineered wind blades that are low-noise and more prolific power-producers.

Partnering with the Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, GE